WEYBURN – The South East Cornerstone Public School Division will sell the former Souris School property to a developer in Winkler, Man., for $130,500.
A motion by Weyburn board member Norma Hewitt-Lendrum was unanimously approved by the eight trustees present at the meeting, as well as Subdivision 4 trustee Tami Scott who joined the meeting via a virtual connection.
The Souris School facility in Weyburn has been demolished and the Winkler-headquartered group, Bridge Road Land Management, is expected to proceed with a multi-level senior residential care complex on the 3.31-acre property within Weyburn.
Next up was a call for the motion to endorse the province’s extended education plan from 2023-2030. The board members provided a motion to approve, but only in principle since there were several issues of concern brought forward by Weyburn trustee Megan Schick, who stated that she was not that pleased with the scope of the endorsement being sought.
“I have several concerns with the general language used here, the clarity and implications of primary goals and how those goals will be measured,” she said.
Schick added that clear definitions of success are missing in some areas of the plan.
“The goal milestones call for development of new tools and assessments that will require energy, time and finances,” she said, adding that there was no indication yet that adequate financing that now generally comes from the provincial government through grants, would be part of these future additions.
The board, however, approved the endorsement motion since they felt it was imperative to move on the program in a timely manner, not wanting to place any delay to the process, but these concerns would definitely be made known in the endorsement document that would be forwarded to the minister of education.
Following that piece of business, the board members enjoyed a 10-minute video featuring teachers, administrators and students at Radville Regional School that included learning centres, safe spaces, new courses, playground equipment and materials, and extracurricular activities that involved student coaches.
Deputy director of education Gord Husband noted the school’s updated outdoor spaces injected new life into the school with the paving of a basketball court that helped change the culture at the school to one of even more engagement and outside pursuits. The court had been built following the receipt of a grant from Federated Co-op Ltd.
The next meeting will be March 16 at the division’s head office in Weyburn.
